This beta release includes new features as well as enhancements and bug fixes related to security, stability, performance, and device compatibility for Flash Player 12 and AIR 4. This document may be updated periodically as more information becomes available.

With this release, we are introducing a new numbering scheme for our product versions. Adopting the pattern set by Google with Chrome and Mozilla with Firefox, we will simply update the major version number with each subsequent release. In other words, beginning with the release of "Jones", Flash Player will become Flash Player 12. With each new major release, roughly every 3 months, that number will increase by one.

This change will also apply to AIR and the AIR SDK, albeit not right away. Our "Jones" release will be numbered AIR 4 and AIR SDK 4; however, with our "King" (Q2 2014) release, the version number will be synchronized with the Flash Player version at 13.

New and Updated Features

Mac .pkg Installation Support – Deploying Flash Player and keeping it up to date is a critical task for system administrators worldwide. In Flash Player 11.9 we added .pkg support for ease of deployment. In Flash Player 12 we've incorporated public beta feedback from
system administrators to improve the workflow and UI.

Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7 Support - Microsoft has released IE 11 on Windows 7 and we plan to officially support this in Flash Player 12.

Safe Mode in Safari 6.1 and higher - Safari 6.1 includes an updated version of Safari with Safe Mode, which implements new security restrictions on the operation of browser plug-ins. To the extent possible, we've adapted Flash Player to transparently handle these changes. A small number of behaviors will change in the context of Safe Mode and are explained in the Known Issues section below.

64-Bit PPAPI Flash Player for Chrome - We'd like to encourage those interested in 64-bit Flash Player for Chrome to please download the latest build available in the Chrome Canary Channel.

Graphics: Buffer Usage flag for Stage3D - We've added a new enum Class called Context3DBufferUsage which defines two constants, STATIC_DRAW (default) and DYNAMIC_DRAW. These constants specify how buffers will be used in Stage3D. We've also added a new parameter, called "bufferUsage", to the constructors of VertexBuffer and IndexBuffer. This "bufferUsage" parameter uses one of the constants form Context3DBufferUsage, which will allow you to select the appropriate buffer type according to your needs.

Android Workers - Introduced as a beta feature in AIR 3.9, we're continuing to improve this feature based on your feedback in preperation for an official release in AIR 4.

Flash Player v16.0.0.287 is now available from the links in the first post, but it doesn't address the new vulnerability. Strange but true.

Adobe wrote:Additionally, we are investigating a report that a separate exploit for Flash Player 16.0.0.287 and earlier versions also exists in the wild. Please continue to monitor this blog for updates.

Systems set to automatically receive updates for Flash Player are now receiving r296. Manual downloads for this version are not currently available.

Adobe wrote:UPDATE (January 24): users who have enabled auto-update for the Flash Player desktop runtime will be receiving version 16.0.0.296 beginning on January 24. This version includes a fix for CVE-2015-0311. Adobe expects to have an update available for manual download during the week of January 26, and we are working with our distribution partners to make the update available in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 10 and 11. For more information on updating Flash Player, please refer to this post. We will continue to provide updates on this issue via the Adobe PSIRT blog.

In fact, for those that want to use mooms's script to create an x64 addon, go to line 402 in "Flash_Maker.cmd" and change "I386\" to "AMD64\". (OR, use Ctrl+H to find and replace "I386\" in your favorite text editor.) And don't forget to edit line 26 to actually make it create the addon.